No regulation without representation

To what extent does the struggle for workplace democracy overlap with the struggle for human rights? In this interview we speak with Roy Adams*, one of the world’s leading figures in the field of labour rights, former professor of industrial relations, founding member and chair of the Society for the Promotion of Human Rights in Employment, and member of the International Labour Rights Commission.

1] How do you see the outlook for workers and their unions today? Do you think the current crisis will have a major impact?

My concern has always been with the broad phenomenon of labour rights as human rights. It’s a concern that was relevant prior to the current crisis, and will be relevant long after the crisis is no more than a memory. In short,

*  Labour rights are human rights
* Human rights are universal and indivisible
* Human rights are non-hierarchical – each is equally sacred and deserves to be treated with equal reverence
* Collective bargaining is a human right
* The right to refrain from bargaining is as bogus as the right to enslave oneself, or the right of minorities to freely choose a racist society
* We need to be concerned about the rights not only of workers in countries with poorly developed democratic political systems but also about the rights of workers in countries that are widely acclaimed to be advanced political democracies such as Canada, the US and Britain where labour rights violations are all too common.

 

Multinationals and the commodification of public sector work

Combining national case studies and comparative work, “The New Gold Rush: the new multinationals and the commodification of public sector work” examines the transformations involved for capital, labour, trade unions and service delivery in the drive towards public sector privatisation.

Editor Ursula Huws, in her introduction to the book, points out that the new public services industry comprises: “the very operations of our own government – the inner workings of the democratic machine and the services that citizens expect to receive” (p2);  ie health care, education, social security, and environmental protection, as well as all the associated information, communication and facilities support. This has all become a gold mine for capital, open to penetration by multinationals and powerful new corporations. Central to the shift is the transformation of public services into standard replicable commodities, with their labour power effectively ‘recommodified’.

Analysts on the left typically consider privatisation in all its various forms – commercialisation of public organisations, joint ventures, full private ownership – as capital’s gain and labour’s loss. This collection provides plenty of evidence to support that understanding.

 

The struggle for new unionism in Mexico

Richard Leitch updates his story on the exemplary solidarity work of two unions – the United Electrical Workers of America (UE) and Mexico’s Authentic Labor Front (FAT). Their relationship is an inspiring one for unionists, particularly as it draws heavily on rank and file involvement. The struggle for a new and independent unionism in Mexico involves ghost unions, corrupt bureaucrats, legitimised thuggery and battling drug cartels.

Last century a deeply restrictive ‘corporatist’ political machinery developed in Mexico during the 70-year dominance of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). This effectively constrained the development of the labour movement, imposing a network of official union bodies and labour laws which fiercely protect the status quo, and are backed by repression. Tying together state, official union and employer interests, this conservative ‘triple alliance’ has dominated Mexico’s social order for decades, posing real problems for any independent force.

 

From ideology to democracy in economics

The recent crop of stimulus packages presents us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compare economic strategies. The sums involved are staggering. How will we feel when we look back on this period in 10 years? Will we wish we had all adopted Thailand’s “trickle up” model, giving money straight to those who need it most? Or will we wish we had followed the US example, covering as many bases as possible? The European Union is turning the crisis into an opportunity, and taking significant steps towards a greener world. And then there’s the option of the big spend-up on infrastructure, as exemplified by countries like Norway. 

One thing is certain: unions must help bring economics under democratic control. The Age of Ideology is over.

 

The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements

This book by Dan Clawson (Cornell 2003) is the most thorough overview of innovative campaigning in the US labour movement seen so far, reports our intrepid reviewer Richard Leitch. 

Clawson is not content to simply record developments in union organising strategies — he claims they point towards something much bigger: a genuine revival of the labour movement, ‘the next upsurge’. He reminds us that historically US labour has never developed in a regular incremental fashion but through discontinuities, including periods of upsurge where membership soars and the existing forms and expectations of trade unionism are radically redrawn. The 1930s was one such period, witnessing a dramatic shift in organising focus from craft to industry-wide basis, that transformed labour relations and impacted upon wider economic and political environments. That upheaval led to the foundation of the ‘New Deal’ labour relations system that dominated the second half of the twentieth century. Now however this framework is unable to meet the realities of a changed social and economic environment, putting the issue of labour renewal firmly on the agenda.

 

Unions and high performance workplaces

Max Ogden reports on some interesting work New Zealand unions are doing around the concept of “high performance workplaces”. The country was hard hit by the neo-liberal agenda of the 80s and 90s, with successive governments doing their best to undermine the voice of workers up until 1999. Now, with the election of a centre-right government last year, unions are wondering to what extent the process of marginalisation will resume. The unions involved in this project* are proposing an interesting way forward; a path which focuses on the workplace, rather than the ballot box. They have produced a handbook which sets out their strategy, and we’d recommend you take a look: Building High Performance Workplaces – the Union Approach (PDF).

The handbook has been prepared for organisers, union reps and members, and looks at how high performance workplaces can be built with the help of strong unions. Such a process forms an important part of collective bargaining. In discussing this, the handbook explores issues which unionists all around the world are familiar with: worker participation, upskilling and lifelong learning, job security, decent wages, collective bargaining, fairness, unity and solidarity. However, and this is what makes the handbook so interesting, they have framed this discussion against issues of business performance.

 

Collective bargaining: from statutory right to human right

In 2007 the Canadian Supreme Court affirmed the human rights status of collective bargaining; moving it, in the Canadian context, from a statutory right to a human right. In order to put that decision into perspective,  network member Roy Adams traces the emergence and general characteristics of the modern international human rights regime, and then reviews the recent evolution and major aspects of collective bargaining as a human right. In this article from Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society, Adams also suggests how to bring Canadian practice into alignment with international standards.  Download article.

 

How globalisation criminalises migrants

Illegal People - David Bacon’s third book on migrant labour in the modern economy – extends his previous focus on Latino immigration in the US to consider its global dimensions. Combining his signature of personal testimonies allied to politically informed analysis, he shows us that the two topics of globalisation and migrant labour are intimately related. For it is the neo-liberal globalisation agenda pursued by leading capitalist powers (and the institutions they control) that destroys existing livelihoods, uprooting peoples, who are then set in motion within ever increasing migrant flows. As immigrants in the rich countries, these migrants find themselves socially and politically marginalised: confined to low grade exploitable labour, without rights to organise, denied citizenship and facing manifold discrimination. They are the ‘illegal people’, but their illegality is one that has been created by the global economic and political system. Bacon argues the best political solution is not to confine migrants within second class ‘guest worker’ programmes (the preference of corporations and Western governments), but to press ahead and secure full social and political rights for all working people.

 

Intriguing New Study of Australian Union Songs

Australian unions have an interesting and complicated history, writes Mark Gregory - Australian labour activist, creator of the Union Songs website, and founding member of the New Unionism Network. His new book, Australian Union Songs, is an authoratative study of the intriguing music this movement has produced over the last 60 years.

Unions are often the largest longest lasting membership-based organisations in many countries. They play a key role in shaping policy, apart from working conditions and pay. They campaign for equity in a community and insist on democratic government, decent health and education, equal pay for men and women workers, decent housing and public transport. They are anti-racist and opposed to war, and they have an international outlook. The history of union involvement is a history of a battle for human rights. All these concerns play a part in labour movement culture, and this is certainly reflected in union songs.

 

Break or Weld? Trade Union responses to global value chain restructuring

In the era of globalisation, marked by mobile transnational capital flows and recurrent economic restructuring, what options do trade unions have to fight back? This is the underlying question facing all the contributors to this collection of essays overseen by Ursula Huws (London 2008). As her introduction notes, both national industrial relations systems and the national regulation of economic life have been severely weakened in recent decades, leaving trade unions without their traditional means of influence – especially their tripartite relationships with national governments and employers. Equally radical shifts in the direction of informal and precarious working patterns and relations have simultaneously disrupted the once familiar stable working environments, constituencies and identities unions operated within and upon.